Abstract
O'Connell and Matese1 and L. Fassio-Canuto (private communication) have shown that in the presence of a very intense magnetic field (B≳1013 G) the neutron should decay more rapidly than in the field-free case. If such fields had existed during the very early stages of a big-bang cosmology, they would clearly have altered the primordial helium abundance to be expected. O'Connell and Matese1 pointed out that the decrease in the neutron half-life would tend to reduce this abundance. We give here an analysis of the other effects such a field would have, and conclude that for 1012 G≲B≲1017 G at the epoch of nucleosynthesis either too much helium or too much deuterium and helium-3 would have been produced. This is good evidence that such fields could not have existed during the big bang. It is not likely that still stronger fields existed at that epoch1: if they did the primordial element abundances to be expected would be zero. Weaker fields have no effect on element production.
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GREENSTEIN, G. Primordial Helium Production in “Magnetic” Cosmologies. Nature 223, 938–939 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/223938b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/223938b0
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